we all make mistakes--and basketball ramblings.

I wish the state hockey debacle would turn the page. You want to take humans out of the game? Then fire all refs and just call the games over video screens? Can't be done? I know. So until you can do that, you will have humans, and humans will make errors. Live with it.

turn the page.

Regional boys basketball is hours away. From my perch I'm looking to see if LaMoure can make it out of the region for the first time in more than a decade. They've been stacked with talent for years but run into the Linton, PBK, BCN teams of regional destiny. Can they make it over the top this year?

out west I keep thinking Mott-Regent has the talent from a state championship FB team, the heart from the same and a seasoned coach in John Butterfield who oh by the way won a title in 1983--25 years ago. Could it be?

weekend chatter

SCC--thanks for the comment on Miss BB. I agree she probably will not be nominated.

Going into the weekend, I can't wait for the upsets. Lie to yourself if you don't think some Class B heavy weight boys team will NOT lose. Districts provide a game to sneak back into it, but it's no guarantee. But lose in the first round, and you've played all your chips.

Even in the girls during the region title games. Minnewaukon and Grafton both lost out.

Simply put, that is why they play the games. Rankings are just paper.

Miss Basketball

i sat back and stewed watching the Miss Basketball discussion on NDpreps for a long time. Now let me say this first. I've nothing personal against Devils Lake senior Ashley Privatsky, nothing at all. I watched her last year in Fargo several times, and she was/is an amazing basketball player. But she's been injured most of the year.

Many on NDpreps have pled her case for Miss Basketball. Which is wrong. Even nominating her is wrong. Taking that honor away from any girl is to short-change the Miss Basketball award. If injury should not take a girl out of contention for Miss Basketball then nominate Mandi Bindas from Kindred and Kayle Roemmich from Bottineau while your at it.

where would it end?

If they want to vote her to All-State? Who stay's off? Injury or not, great player in grades 9-11 is fine. But that's no what All-state and Miss BB are about.

keep Miss Basketball's integrity

weekend thoughts

If Brian Mc. is such a liar how does Rocket set with one person in between and NOT become inflamed, and at least look mad at Brian? The tape I've seen is Rocket just sits there. No way a human being in that circumstance can keep from wanting to rip the guy's head off if he's lying. Just my .02$

Richland boys lost a hearbreaker in OT to Hankinson. I look for a rematch in the Regional title game as one of the best bets in coming weeks.


Linton lost for the first time in recent memory to Central Praire on Tuesday night BUT came up big with W over previously unbeaten and #2 ranked LaMoure. No surprise here as history has show LaMoure comes up short in these BIG games. Look for more of the same in the regional tourney. I think Dan Carr who notched his 500th victory could see his karma to LaMoure after/if he retires. I always look at teams like the 2008 Loboes and wonder what kind of team they would be with Dan Carr as coach...unstoppable. that's what it is.
Daytona 500 on Sunday if anyone cares...i really dont :)

to many tournaments.

This overlap with last weekend being regional wrestling and girls districts is flat out nuts. Class B boys tournament is March 6-9 in Fargo. That's a month of tournament games. To much. We need to get rid of district tournaments in go to Regionals with keeping district alignment. top 4 teams in districts season schedule make regionals. How many bottom seed district teams make regionals in a given year anyway.

It won't happen. tournament dollars. but it was a good idea. What is it? A state champion will play 9 games from Dist through State. Why?

blame game

Jamestown Sun has a story linked here

about the NDHSAA moving the state VB tourney to Minot. Funny thing is Bob Toso the Jamestown Superintendent blames the FANS for making reservations at multiple motels and not cancelling them when they dont need the rooms, so motel space is not an issue.

puh-lease. that's about as lame of an excuse as I've heard. Maybe Bob should be on the NDHSAA board. Where those kind of quotes are common.

10 years ago Valley City didn't need another class

Pretty ironic that a week after the 3 class system which VC begged for was shot down, the Fargo Forum runs a story about Jeff Boschee lighting up the Midwest. I'm curious as to what the enrollment disparity was in 1998 between VC and Fargo South or Bismarck Century? It seems it's more about having players, coaches and a system then it is about adding a class. At least in 1998 it was.

It’s been about two decades since Floyd Boschee built a makeshift basketball hoop in the basement of his Valley City, N.D., home.

The white-painted wood backboard with an attached orange rim that was less than regulation height was one of the first places Jeff Boschee started to hone his shooting skills.

His shooting touch would help Boschee score the most career points in North Dakota Class A boys basketball.

“He wouldn’t quit until he won,” Floyd Boschee said of his son. “I would just have to let him win or he wouldn’t stop. At that point, I thought he would be real competitive.”

Jeff was just starting grade school when he started to play shooting games on that hoop with Floyd, substituting a little blue rubber soccer ball for a basketball.

“We had a game that we’d call free throws and we would shoot the best out of 25,” said Jeff Boschee, 28, who is now the head boys basketball coach at The Barstow School, a private school in Kansas City, Mo. “When my dad would win, I would want to keep on playing and playing.”

Boschee finished his high school career with 1,994 points, averaging 20.8 points in 96 varsity games. He is the only player from North Dakota to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game. Among other honors, Boschee was named North Dakota’s Mr. Basketball for his senior season.

He went on to have a standout career at the University of Kansas, where he was a four-year starter for the storied NCAA Division I program. He is the Jayhawks’ career leader in 3-pointers made with 338 and No. 13 in career scoring with 1,560 points.

A 6-foot-1 guard, Boschee is arguably the top boys high school player North Dakota has ever produced.

“He has to be in the top 10, I would think,” said Mandan’s Don Hanson, who has published The Hoopster North Dakota basketball preview for 25 years and coached for more than two decades before that. “He could score from anywhere on the floor. I think he could have scored more, but he was so unselfish. He worked within the system and got his teammates involved.”

Boschee shot 57 percent (339 of 600) from the field in his prep career, 39 percent (265 of 674) from the 3-point line and 82 percent (243 of 295) from the foul line.

While his shooting ability and scoring garnered the most attention, Boschee was not a one-dimensional player. He is the Hi-Liners’ career leader in assists with 422, an average of 4.4 assists per game.

Boschee made sure he worked on all his skills, not just his shooting. He carried around a backpack that held two basketballs, a jump rope and cones, which he used for drills.

“He set up regimens of drills that he would do all alone,” said Al Cruchet, who was Valley City’s head coach when Boschee was a freshman. “He was one of those guys who would come into the gym and work on ballhandling for 20 minutes before he would start shooting.”

His focus on basketball was so sharp that it once landed him in trouble.

When Boschee was in junior high, school was let out to allow students to help sandbag because of area flooding.

Boschee instead went to the Valley City Rec Center to play basketball.

“Our senior high principal walked in and asked me what I was doing. I got a week of detention for that,” Boschee said. “It was a way for me to play more basketball, I guess. I look back and laugh at it. The right thing to do was probably go sandbag, but that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to play basketball.”

His older brother Mike Boschee – who played basketball at the University of North Dakota from 1987-90 – was Jeff’s biggest influence.

When Jeff was in grade school, he can remember spending basketball weekends at UND with Mike.

“I was always watching the games and practices pretty intently,” said Jeff, who tied a Valley City record by scoring 45 points in a game his senior season.

“I think he was influenced by his older brother a lot about what it takes to be a player,” Floyd added. “The thing that stood out in my mind was how dedicated Jeff was to getting better.”

One of Boschee’s most memorable performances came in the 1997 East Region tournament championship against Fargo Shanley.

A junior, Boschee scored 39 points – including 7-of-15 shooting from 3-point range – to lead Valley City to a 75-71 victory.

He scored the first nine points of overtime, all on 3-pointers, to help the Hi-Liners overcome a 39-point game from Shanley sophomore standout Nick Jacobson. Jacobson would later play Division I basketball at Utah.

“Jeff just turned around and said ‘Guys, just jump on my back. Let’s go.’ ” said Fargo South head boys coach Mike Hendrickson, who was head coach at Valley City when Boschee was a sophomore and junior. “The biggest part is just his competitiveness. He was going to do everything he could to get better and he brought kids up with him.”

His senior year in high school, Boschee scored 40 points in the first round of the 1998 Class A state tournament to lift Valley City to a 63-56 victory against Minot.

Valley City finished third at state that season. That was the highest the Hi-Liners placed at state in Boschee’s career.

“He was just fun to go watch play, not so much as his father, but just as a fan,” Floyd said. “I was amazed at the things he could do. How he could handle the ball, shoot the ball and pass the ball. I didn’t go and watch him practice, so I was like everybody else. I would show up to watch what he could do. Wherever Valley City went to play in those years when Jeff played, the gyms were packed.”

That legend had its genesis in Floyd’s basement.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Eric Peterson at (701) 241-5513.

Peterson’s prep sports blog can be found at www.areavoices.com

February watch

Going into the weekend. I'm washed out, wasted on basketball right now. Surprised how bad Dickinson Trinity beat Mott-Regent on the boys side last night. And I'm looking for which high ranked teams will lose going into Districts. Can LaMoure keep on the winning track? They have a history of losing at the wrong time? Will it happen this year?

What about on the girls side? For some reason I'm thinking Bowman County or Bottineau will drop a game before regionals. Maybe that will tweek my interest?